A Business Number is a nine-digit identifier provided by the Canada Revenue Agency (CRA) to each Canadian business.

This number is given to register tax accounts and to make communication with CRA easier. Each legal entity (sole proprietor, partnership, corporation or trust) requires one business number and each business number can be registered for any or all of the four major tax accounts needed to operate your business;

1. GST

2. Payroll

3. Corporate taxes

4. Import/Export

The business number consists of three parts. The first 9 digits are the identifier, followed by 2 letters which identifies the account and finally a 4 digit reference number.

GST – 123456789 RT 0001

Payroll – 123456789 RP 0001

Corporate – 123456789 RC 0001

Import/Export – 123456789 RM 0001

Before you are able to register your business for a business number, you will require the following information;

1) Your Social Insurance Number

2) The Business Structure (Sole proprietor, corporation etc)

3) Business Name

4) The Location of the Business

5) A description of the major business activity

6) The name and contact information for the contact person

7) Sales amounts (if you are registering for GST)

8) The Fiscal Year end

CRA has created a Form RC1 – Request for a Business Number to aid in outlining all the information they require. You can find the form here

You can register for your business number three different ways;

1) By Phone – You can call CRA at 1-800-959-5525. Be prepared to answer Part A of the RC1 form outlined above.

2) By Mail or Fax – You can mail or fax the RC1 form outlined above to;

220 4th Avenue South East Calgary AB T2G 0L1 Fax: 403-264-5843

If your business is not located in Calgary , please check this link for the tax service office you should send the form to – http://www.cra-arc.gc.ca/cntct/tso-bsf-eng.html.

3) Online – You can register online http://www.cra-arc.gc.ca/bro/

The online version will take you through a list of questions similar to the RC1 form outlined above. Once all the fields are entered, a business number will automatically be assigned at the end of the questionnaire to be used as soon as you would like.